Matthew 17:20

Home School

I thought we might be past due for a classic family update, I haven’t been doing many of those lately and while I have said over and over again that I was going to get back to writing about our family I just haven’t! There are many reasons for that but most importantly I’ve been spending more time with my kids and less time blogging. Anyways, I have big plans for this little blog of mine this year. You’ll learn more throughout the next few months, including seeing many reviews for some awesome products, and a big giveaway to celebrate my 8 year blogiversary in April!

Anyways, things in the Mustard Seed house have been crazy and LOUD and adventurous to say the least. J has been working a lot (including staying over at work for a few days this past weekend and a few weeks ago due to poor weather) and he started his second semester of school a few weeks ago. He’s doing great, he’s tired, but I’m so proud of all the hard work he’s putting into this job and education. We are working on some projects together as well, we have really gotten into wood working since building our king sized bed last spring. We made some monogrammed ornaments for our family for Christmas, some picture holder signs for our mom’s, a coffee table, and we are currently working on loft beds for our kids! It’s so fun and a great way for us to bond when we otherwise don’t have the time or energy to do much of anything, including going out.

Boogie has been working on some kindergarten curriculum this semester, she finished her Big Preschool Workbook last semester so we moved on to other things. We are halfway through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and she LOVES it. She’s already able to read a lot of her favorite books, with some help with the bigger words, seeing her face light up when she realized that she could read was AMAZING. Homeschool for the win! We are also using Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics that I purchased from a friend a while back, it’s no longer in print, so I’m hoping to find more similar to this as Boogie really enjoys this particular book. She flies through her school work and is hungry to learn more and more. I will have to find some easy ways to teach her all the fun things she wants to learn – she’s super interested in the human body, animals, and baking/cooking…. so I’m planning to include those in our studies these next few months.

Bubby is growing up so fast, I was astounded to discover that he is now in a size 4T pants when we were trying on clothes for this coming year last week. His 3T pants weren’t too short yet, but I guess I’ve been in denial because the 4T fit him perfectly! We are trying out different ways to handle Bubby’s behaviors, I haven’t really posted about this much, but our sweet boy is quite a handful. Our hope is that we can help him learn to handle his emotions a little better, that’s all I really want to say about that for the moment. Bubby loves being a “big boy”, he’s officially potty trained, though he does need to wear a pull up at night as he doesn’t wake up to go potty. But he’s done a great job being independent about changing back into undies the next morning. He is super into everything super heroes, so that includes being wild and crazy all the time as well! I’ve tried some preschool/tot school stuff with him, but I’m going to have to be more creative with how I go about teaching him. That child can’t sit still for more than 5 minutes unless he’s got something to munch on or his favorite movie is on! He wants to be like his big sister and sit for school, but he just can’t handle it. Any suggestions would be great! 😀

Bird has been the perfect addition to our family, she is a breath of fresh air. She’s definitely a toddler now (I will not cry…. I will not cry…) and is showing her desire for independence but is also very much a clingy, mommy milk loving baby still. She loves to run around with her siblings and “try” to play with them, she is not afraid to let them know she wants to play or when she doesn’t like something they are doing. She loves playing with her babies, Bubby’s super hero action figures and anything that rolls. She loves being outside and still sticks EVERYTHING in her mouth. So that’s super fun. We are still bedsharing with this sweet girl, but she’s learning to sleep in her own bed as well. As of right now she sleeps the first few hours of bedtime in her own bed and then wakes up around 1-2am and sleeps the rest of the night with us. It works for us, so we don’t mind! And let me tell you, that baby likes to sleep. If she could sleep in in the morning, she’d probably sleep until 10!

As for me, I’m planning some fun things for Mustard Seed Mommy and I have some dreams I would like to pursue in the next year… if I can save up the money to do so I would love to sell Lularoe. If you haven’t heard about Lularoe you’re missing out. Two words…. butter pants. Check it out, you won’t regret it!

Anyways, that’s it for now. Life is crazy and hectic for us, we are always busy and I can’t believe how big my babies are. Having a 5, 3 and 1 year old all at once is an adventurous journey. I wouldn’t want it any other way! God bless!

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I’m obsessed with planners, it’s sad but true. I am a note taker and a list maker, if we have anything to do or anything to plan… you better believe I’m writing it all down! This planner is fantastic, ugly… but fantastic! I dig the weekly planners where you can keep track of times of appointments and activities. Want to learn more about this great planner? Check out my review video below!

You can purchase one of these HERE (when available):

Disclaimer: I received one of these planners for FREE in return for an unbiased and honest review. All opinions stated are mine.

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I am a huge Erin Condren fan, I’ve been drooling over her planners for a LONG time… but they are pricey (understandably so considering the work that goes into them). So, if you’re like me and can’t afford one of her amazing planners right now AND maybe you’re a teacher, The Stauffer Home is giving away SEVEN… yes, SEVEN planners! AND MORE…. so go check it out! Just click the image below!

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I have found it very frustrating to find worksheets for Boogie, especially when it comes to handwriting. I wanted to be able to create writing paper specifically for her needs and where she is academically. Yes, Boogie is only 4, but we have recently started working on reading and writing with the book “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”. It comes highly recommended by other home school moms, so I was excited to give it a go. Boogie needs extra practice with her handwriting so I wanted to be able to create a worksheet where she could trace the appropriate letters and then write them on her own. But I couldn’t find anything online that suited our needs and I didn’t want a basic writing tablet from the store.

So, when I came across this program I knew I had to give it a try. It took me a little while to get the hang of it (probably more so because every 2 minutes I had to get up and tend to Bird, lol!) but once I did… SUCCESS! This program was EXACTLY what we needed. And even better… I can make so many things with this Startwrite program. For now I’m just using for basic and plain letter tracing worksheets until Boogie gets the hang of forming her letters. Later I can use it to make bright and colorful worksheets like you see in the image above. I’m so excited to try more things out!

The above picture is an example of some of the fun worksheets you can create on this program. I haven’t tried out making a worksheet with the grid background yet, but I’m sure that will come in handy!

This is what the program looks like when you first open it. I have it maximized to fit the entire screen of my computer. At first I couldn’t figure out how to make the grid lines bigger, so I felt a little silly when I realized that all I had to do was increase the font size. Duh. So, once I finally figured out that little tidbit of information I go to work!

Below you can see a powerpoint presentation of screenshots I took while experimenting with the program! Once of the screenshots shows a worksheet I made for the first lesson of “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”. We are working on the “mmm” and “sss” sounds as well as writing “m” and “s”.

You can check out tutorials for how to use the program HERE and even download a FREE trial HERE! You can purchase this program for $39.95, which is a great price considering how much you can really do with it! This is GREAT for teachers and home school parents alike, AND you could win the program from FREE right here on Mustard Seed Mommy! Just fill out the entries in the widget below for your chance to win! The first entry asks for your contact email, this is REQUIRED so that I can immediately send the winner’s email to the sponsor. This saves you AND me time! Win/win! Good luck! This giveaway ends February 17th at 10am!

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About Me

Hi! I’m Sarah, I’m a Christian, a wife, a homeschooling momma to my four sweet babies and I am so happy you’re visiting Mustard Seed Mommy. I’ve been a blogger for many years, and I’ve written about a variety of topics but I’m hoping to start really focusing on homeschool topics and faith. Here you will find tips, tutorials, and suggestions for homeschooling and parentings and I hope that you will be blessed by what you read. You can read more about me and my family by heading to the top of this page and clicking the About Tab. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment on any post and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!